BU, with seven skaters at World Juniors, hosts Union

The wait is over, Terrier fans. After 23 days without a game, the No. 5 Boston University men’s hockey team returns to action when it hosts No. 10 Union College on Thursday. It will be the Terriers’ (10-5-2, 4-2-2 Hockey East) last non-conference home game of the regular season.

The main storyline heading into tomorrow’s contest isn’t who will be taking the ice for BU; rather, it’s who won’t be.

Seven Terriers – freshman forwards Patrick Harper, Clayton Keller and Kieffer Bellows, freshman defenseman Dante Fabbro, sophomore defenseman Charlie McAvoy, sophomore forward Jordan Greenway and freshman goaltender Jake Oettinger – are playing in the World Junior Championships in Canada and will miss the game against the Dutchmen (14-4-2). They represent four of BU’s top-five point scorers, while Oettinger has started all but two games between the pipes.

This means that BU head coach David Quinn has some difficult line decisions to make, as he’ll have just 11 forwards and six defensemen in uniform Thursday. Quinn said he wants to keep the line of senior Nick Roberto, freshman Patrick Curry and junior Nikolas Olsson together, as the trio has thrived as of late. The rest, however, is uncertain.

“We’ve only got 11 [forwards], so we’ve been trying a lot of different things,” Quinn said. “We’re not really sure what the D pairings are going to be yet, we haven’t really talked about that. It’s going to be a hodgepodge of lines and D pairings trying to find out what the right combination is.”

You can catch the rest of the story over on The Daily Free Press.